


Zap

by LiveAndLetRain (CaraLee)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Angst, Background Relationships, Child Soldiers Adopting Other Child Soldiers, Don't copy to another site, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, kind of, mostly exposition, now expanded, smol Kakashi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-31
Updated: 2020-04-26
Packaged: 2020-07-28 06:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20059513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaraLee/pseuds/LiveAndLetRain
Summary: Minato didn't expect to have a student this early or acquire one this way. But they got this! They totally got this!(AKA: Five Times Kakashi Zapped Someone + One Time HereallyWished He Hadn't)





	1. I: Minato

**Author's Note:**

> I feel kind of bad about this because its mostly just a humorous exposition ramble that sets up something else. I'm sorry.

If Minato were to be honest, he’d admit that he was completely unprepared when Hatake Sakumo, Konoha’s very own White Fang, cornered him outside Hokage Tower and asked him if he’d be willing to take his son, Kakashi, on as an apprentice.

Minato, all of fifteen years old, jōnin for a year and very firmly regarded as one of Konoha’s greatest rising stars, felt very underqualified but agreed.

You don’t just _ say no _ to The White Fang. It’s just...he’s _ The White Fang_. Konoha’s greatest shinobi outside of Sandaime himself or the Sannin. And Minato is pretty sure that he’d be able to give Jiraiya-Sensei a run for his money at the very least. 

Minato had only been on a team he led _once, _ back when he was a chūnnin (put on teams for his fūinjutsu expertise) and it was _amazing_. There aren’t many shinobi faster than Minato, and Hatake Sakumo is definitely one of them. Watching him move through the enemy with all the inevitable fluidity of his lightning nature was _art_. 

And he was a _ good _commander. The kind of commander Minato aspires to be. He took the time to make sure each and every member of his team was taken care of throughout the entire two weeks they were in the field without coddling them and had personally dragged them all to the hospital to be checked out afterward. Even Tsunade-Hime likes him, and she’s hard to impress. You can count the number of people she approves of on one hand.

(Minato might, just maybe, _ possibly _ have a bit of a crush.)

All that aside, everyone knows about the Hatake kid. Fast-tracked through The Academy, graduated a week ago after only four months at the ripe old age of five. Will probably make chūnin within another couple of years. 

It really makes Minato wonder why _he_’s the one Hatake wants as the boy’s teacher. He may be one of the village’s best jōnin, but he’s not exactly one of the most prominent. At the end of the day, connections are one of the most valuable tools in a shinobi’s arsenal and Minato’s connections are pretty sparse; especially compared to Hatake, head of one of the oldest clans in Konoha.

True, Minato is the student of one of the legendary Sannin, and thus directly connected to Sandaime Hokage himself; but connections upwards aren’t always helpful when they’re the _only _connections you have. Minato is a clanless orphan of unknown parentage, both his genin teammates were dead before any of them made chūnin, and his girlfriend is technically a princess of a noble clan but she’s his _secret_ girlfriend so it’s not like that necessarily improves his status in any way unless they were to run away to Uzushio together. Which would bring a whole different set of problems.

He has no ties to any of the clans. He’s been on a wide variety of teams for a wide variety of missions, but that can be said of literally every jōnin in the village. And Hatake _ knows _this. He knows this and he still goes to the trouble of tracking Minato down, to ask him if he, Namikaze Minato, will accept the heir of the Hatake Clan as his apprentice.

And so Minato finds himself, rather abruptly, with a very small, very serious student, who watches him intently with big grey eyes and says almost nothing. And...look. It’s not like Minato has no experience with children, okay. He grew up in the _orphanage_. He’s been surrounded by kids of all ages since before he could walk, both shinobi and civilian (and some, like Minato himself; no one knew _ where _ they came from.)

He doesn’t exactly interact with kids _regularly _anymore, not since he became a genin, but still…

He’s pretty sure it doesn’t matter. After being Kakashi’s teacher for all of two hours he’s convinced the real reason the brat graduated so fast is that the Academy teachers had no idea what to _do _with him. None of the normal rules seem to apply.

Oh, he has the skills to qualify him as an academy graduate and fully-fledged genin, there is no question about that. But he views anything acknowledging the fact that he is five years old and not much taller than Minato’s knee with suspicion or outright hostility. Even relatively _subtle _things, like Minato moving some of the cups in his kitchen down to a lower cabinet so Kakashi doesn’t have to clamber all over his counter to reach them.

And Kakashi is _clearly _five, even though he is also the advertised genius. He gets cranky when he’s tired and hungry, even if he hides it well. He can’t always follow multi-step direction, and he _loves _playing with his dogs.

That last, he would deny vehemently, but Minato dares him to come up with another explanation for how often he summons his three ninken, but especially Pakkun, when they aren’t actually needed. (Not that Minato minds.)

Maybe that’s part of why Sakumo chose Minato as Kakashi’s teacher. Minato knows from experience that most non-summoners consider being constantly accompanied by your summons to be showing off. Minato _gets it_ though. He’s subtler than Jiraiya-Sensei, his preferred companion, Ryōshitsu is small enough to fit in one of the pockets of his jōnin vest and they spend a good deal of time there.

It’s hard to describe to anyone who hasn’t signed a summoning contract, but Minato knows Kakashi feels it as deeply as he does himself. That tug on your soul and the aching loneliness at the absence of the beings you’ve bound yourself to. It’s probably even stronger for Kakashi. Dogs are pack creatures after all.

Kakashi is actually very puppy-like in a lot of ways. He cocks his head to the side when he’s listening to something in a way that mirrors Pakkun _exactly _ and it is the actual cutest thing. He’s easily distracted by moving things or “interesting smells” and all his brushes and chopsticks have little tooth marks. Minato half-expects to walk in on him chewing on the tatami one of these days. 

Once he makes the connection between Kakashi’s quirks and his ninken, he realizes that it might actually work better to treat Kakashi _like _a puppy rather than an actual human child. (He voices this half-formed thought to Kushina on date night and she cackles so loudly that her neighbors crawl over to peek through the window to see what’s wrong.)

The thing is though, it works. True, the treats he uses to reward “good behavior” are new jutsus, and the “good behaviors” he’s rewarding are mostly things like taking a nap without complaint, resting instead of overtraining, or using his words to communicate instead of grunts or scowls; but it works.

He has to beat the little shit into the ground a couple of times first to “establish dominance” or whatever but at least Kakashi stops viewing him with the skeptical scorn of most clan-nin Minato interacts with and, instead, seems to regard him with a certain grudging respect. (And if Minato spends an evening wailing into Kushina’s shoulder about how he’s a horrible person who beat up an Actual Baby, that’s no one’s business but his own. And the Actual Baby stabbed him in the side, so it was only fair.)

The point is, they figure it out. It comes in fits and starts with many bumps along the road but about three months after he’s first handed the tiny ninja, Minato feels like he and Kakashi are doing pretty well. 

And one day, when they’re both worn out from training all morning and a last-minute courier mission in the afternoon that turned into a clash with _three _ S-ranked missing-nin (because this is the kind of ridiculous nonsense that just _happens _to them) stumbling back into Konoha half-dead, Minato reaches over and ruffles Kakashi’s (fluffy, baby-soft) mop of silver hair.

He expects Kakashi to startle and hop out of reach. He does _not _expect the prickle and crack of static electricity that leaps from Kakashi’s hair to his hand with a visible spark. It’s strong enough to hurt a little and Minato stares at his hand in confusion for a moment. It’s Kakashi’s face flushing red in embarrassment above his mask that clues him in and Minato almost coos at how adorable it is.

Kakashi was so startled by the hair ruffle he lost control of his chakra just long enough for it to react independently!

Kakashi, still blushing like a maiden from Jiraiya-Sensei’s new novel, scrambles up the side of the nearest house and disappears over the roofs towards the Hatake house. Minato lets him go, grinning all the while as he runs to Hokage Tower to make his report and turn over the storage scroll of bodies he has in his pocket.

His cute little apprentice sparks baby lightning when surprised.

Minato is going to have so much _fun _with this.


	2. II: Maito Gai

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I've had chapters three and four of this fic just...sitting in a notebook pretty much since the first one was posted.  
And then Aephemi left a _gorgeous_ review on the first chapter yesterday and the desire to post Chapter Three in response was great enough to compel me to write Chapter Two!
> 
> And many thanks to my amazing beta, Nym. Who I love so much and without whom my writing would not be half as good.
> 
> LET THE ANGST COMMENCE!

Kakashi doesn’t have any friends.

Sure, he has year mates, but they’re all students at the Academy still and he has very little in common with them besides age. (And even then, most of them are a year or two older than him.)

It’s alarming, Minato thinks it can’t be good for such a small child to only ever interact with adults and dogs but there really isn’t much he can do about it at the moment. He makes a mental note to keep an eye out for opportunities to remedy the situation and goes back to quizzing Kakashi on the best routes to take through the forests around the Waterfall border to avoid being caught.

Kakashi doesn’t have any friends.

But he does have Gai.

The first time Kakashi is ambushed by a small, green blur with shaggy black hair, Minato is surprised. He’s fairly certain that the only people he’s ever seen make voluntary physical contact with his apprentice are himself, his father, and the old lady at the corner grocery store by Minato’s apartment. (Kakashi bites and people seem to sense this.)

Kakashi being challenged to a battle of wits by said small, green blur is even more surprising, Kakashi’s sharp refusal much less so, and Minato frowns as the other boy trudges off, looking dejected. “Was that Maito-San’s son?”

Kakashi shrugs and grunts behind his mask. It’s an affirmative sort of shrug-grunt combination, so Minato supposes he is correct. The eyebrows are rather distinctive as well, he can’t imagine _those _showing up outside the Maito family.

Over the first year of having Kakashi as an apprentice, he is witness to several such incidents. Kakashi seldom agrees to any of the Maito boy’s invitations, but when he does the level of ecstatic joy that Gai (as Minato eventually learns his name is) radiates is probably powerful enough to keep the lights on at Minato’s apartment for a month. And as time goes on, Gai seems to take Kakashi’s refusals less and less to heart. His departures shift from sad disappointment to loud declarations of future attempts.

Well, if he’s determined to befriend Kakashi he’s going to need every ounce of that perseverance. Minato is rooting for him.

Hatake Sakumo’s disgrace casts a pall over everything.

All the progress Minato has been making towards connecting with his small student is undone in an instant. Kakashi withdraws into himself, his naturally quiet temperament becoming sullen and dogged. He moves through each day and each mission with a silent focus that, quite frankly, Minato finds alarming. 

He attempts to speak with Hatake-San on the subject (one of the few times Minato is in the village for any length of time, with the war he has many more missions and they are much longer, any free time he has in the village is spent with Kakashi or trying to decipher the secrets of the Nidaime’s forbidden jutsus) but the man barely says a word, just watches Minato with sad eyes, slumped forward over the table. His hands are idle in front of him and every fiber of his being is so defeated it unsettles Minato somewhere deep in his gut.

It is like looking at a wolf caught in a trap, both of you knowing the hunter is approaching and with him the end.

“You shouldn’t come here anymore, Namikaze-San,” he finally says as he walks Minato to the front door of the Hatake house, his feet shuffling slowly over the traditional floors, his eyes fixed on them, not once looking up to meet Minato’s. “Associating with me will do nothing but harm to both you and Kakashi.”

The great silver wolf sprawled over the threshold watches Minato leave, her eyes boring into his back until he is past the gate and out of sight of the house.

The main road leads him towards the marketplace and Minato shoves his hands in his pockets, feeling out of place in a way he hasn’t since he was a genin. He gives in to childish impulse and kicks a pebble down the road in front of him, watching the small dust clouds left in its wake dissipate in the gentle evening breeze. He’s not used to feeling helpless, not anymore, and he does _not _like it. 

For one brief, overwhelming moment, he feels a burning resentment towards the village and everyone in it. _ What gives them the right _\- he cuts himself off, keeping the thought from fully forming. They are at war now. In part because of the consequences of Sakumo-San’s failed mission. They cannot afford dissension, not if they want to survive. 

But failed mission or no, the village has thrown away their strongest fighter and that gnaws at Minato. With Tsunade gone and Jiraiya-Sensei who knows where that leaves only Orochimaru and Hatake to serve as deterrents to those who wish them harm. And they are at war now. Everyone wishes them harm. (Even their allies.) And no one has served this village as faithfully as Hatake Sakumo, surely one mission failure, no matter how great, was not enough to have him cast aside like this?

“KAKASHI!” Up ahead, at the edge of the marketplace, Gai greets Kakashi with the now-familiar combination of “shout and tackle.” Minato winces. Kakashi has taken to sneaking around public places, not overtly, just...he’s quieter now, to avoid drawing attention. Gai’s greeting has all eyes on them both. An empty space clears around the two boys, civilians drawing away from the son of the disgraced White Fang.

At first, Minato doesn’t think Gai even notices, given his continued enthusiastic greeting of Kakashi, but once Kakashi (rather harshly) breaks free of his hug, the boy rounds on a shopkeeper trying to disappear among his produce. “You should be ashamed!” His high voice and large eyebrows combining to build a scene so ridiculous it almost seems unreal, tempered by the genuine anger in his eyes.

“My rival has-”

“Gai,” Kakashi tries to interrupt, but he is ignored as the other boy’s indignation grows.

“-Done nothing to deserve such treatment! You-” He breaks off with a yelp as Kakashi’s chakra surges, jumping back and away, his hand flying to his shoulder. “Rival, what was that?”

But Kakashi is gone, leaving behind only the faint scent of ozone. 

Minato quickens his pace, he’ll need to check and make sure that Kakashi didn’t injure the other boy. When he gets upset his zaps tend to be more powerful and uncontrolled.

Gai slumps for a moment, looking defeated, but he gathers himself quickly. By the time Minato reaches his side he looks quite ready to hare off in pursuit. Minato drops a hand onto his shoulder to hold him in place. “Let him go, Gai-Kun.”

The boy looks up at him, open bewilderment in his eyes. “This isn’t _ right_, Minato-Sensei.”

The two of them look out at the market, returning to its normal hustle and bustle as if Kakashi had never been there at all.

“Is it?”

Minato does not know how to answer.


	3. III: Minato Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is Minato that finds him

Minato’s whole arm is numb but he just stares at the door Kakashi ran out of, the hand that touched his apprentice’s shoulder limp by his side, unable to move from the force of the shock.

The moonlight through the window paints dancing shadow patterns against the old, lacquered furniture, gleaming off the gold inlay in a way that whispers of the unnatural. The wind against the walls sends creaks and groans through the frame of the house, almost drowning out the rustle of the leaves in the garden just past the engawa.

Behind him, blood stains the tatami of the Hatake house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a very short chapter, don't worry, the rest will be longer.  
Every time I tried to make this one long it just...did not work.


End file.
